Manicure of the Moment: Prepare for Pic Spam - a- Palooza!

Hello gentle readers. How is everyone? I am well... A little busy and so on. I didn't post yesterday thanks to my photo uploader not working. *sigh* Oh well.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post. And thank you to new readers for coming in and hanging out! I am so happy that you are here. :D

Today's manicure is an exciting one for me. It is a layered mani, in grey and well... The rest is a surprise. I think I must warn you right now, this post will be a tad wordy (I know what you are thinking, there's a shock! heh heh!) and there is a lot of photographs. I went a little camera nuts on this one.

First I applied my base coat then two coats of Sally Hansen Wet Cement. When I picked this polish up, the other day I was honestly expecting it to be a chalky, gloopy, not so inspired creme. Boy, was I ever in for a nice surprise. This polish is a jelly. It is very pigmented but translucent, silky, smooth, squishy and very shiny. I like this polish and it is going to become a fave grey in my rotation, for sure.

These were taken in direct sun. All photos in this post are, as always, clickable to enlarge, if you are so inclined.

And, in shade. You can see the squishiness, in these photos.

My spell check says squishiness isn't a word. I say it is, so! :D

After I got this polish on and photographed, it was magic time. Time to top this perfectly lovely grey with something that made me squeal like a little kid in an ice cream shop as I brushed it on my nails. The magic? you ask. Why, OPI What's Dune? A beautiful sheer duchrome grey with some blue, some green and a lovely, subtle linear holograph.

I received this polish from a very kind, generous lady who gave me a little gift bag full of older, black label OPI polishes when I put out a request on Freecycle. When I pulled it out of the bag, it was a real mess. Just a rubbery, bouncy pile of grey-green-dog barf looking goo in the bottle. Before I got into polish, reading blogs and running my own blog about polish, I would have taken that bottle and thrown it directly in the trash. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. I would have had no clue that that little pile of goo was in fact, a treasure in disguise.

When I received this polish, I didn't know what it was, I was aware that it was an older black label OPI and I decided that I would see if I could do anything with it or for it before I gave it the old heave-ho. I tossed in a handful of ballz then dumped in a lot of thinner. And I do mean, a lot of thinner. Then I started shaking. Added a little more thinner, shake-shake-shake. A little more thinner, a little more shake and all of a sudden... Magic!

I only needed to apply one coat of this over the SH Wet Cement. As I was brushing it on my nails, the afternoon son came flooding in through my window and it was so beautiful. It applied like a dream. I finished applying What's Dune? on my nails then without even waiting to apply topcoat or moisturise my cuticles or anything, I grabbed my camera and ran outside and started snapping.

First in shade. In the shade, this manicure just looks slightly brushstroke-y somewhat frosty. Uninspired.

You can see hints of duochrome. A little blue, a little green

Please forgive my dog-ugly cuticles in these pictures. I abused them horribly with a bunch of swatches before I did this manicure and didn't take care of them before taking pictures. *hangs head in shame*

Now for the sun shots. I tried and tried to get the true beauty of this polish. It deserved better lighting and a better photographer than I. I was unable, in direct sun and with my little camera to capture the true glory of this beauty.

The holo is subtle, but brighter in person. And it is linear, not scattered.

You can see hints of it, here.

See the duochrome?

Can you believe that one polish can be so filled with so many effects, so much beauty? I couldn't, until I saw it. After I took these pictures, I topped this manicure with Poshe`. The topcoat doesn't inhibit the holo, at all.

As if this post isn't long enough and isn't packed with enough photographs, I shot a little video, too. A last ditch effort to capture the holo. *sigh* Not terribly successful, but I think it gives some idea.

Told you you were in for it, today. lol

I swatched my new Wet-N-Wild collection today and a new franken, too. I also have the beginings of my colour stories started. I'll be showing them to you in the days to come.

Okay, I need to get going. It is a gorgeous afternoon and I am about to head out to the lake for a walk. Thank you so much for popping in. Have a great evening and may your polish never bubble.